Life Lesson
by rainbows-and-desperados
Summary: When Jane and Michael make some unsavory comments about animals and zoos, Mary decides it would be prudent to teach the children a valuable lesson about respecting those less fortunate by whisking them away to an odd sort of place called Chimpanzoo.


**I DON'T OWN MARY POPPINS OR ANYTHING AFFILIATED WITH IT. I AM MAKING NO PROFIT FROM THIS STORY.**

 **AN: This story was a request from retro mania (Brian). They came up with storyline. I'm just putting their ideas to paper.**

* * *

It was never to be said that Mary Poppins put up with nonsense or tomfoolery of any sort. She was a practical woman at heart, after all, and nonsense simply had no place in a practical life. There was a time for business and practicality and a time for fun and foolishness and in a civilized world, the two times must remain separated. This, however, did not mean that she was all business all the time; even the most practical woman had to have her passionate pursuits to keep her sane.

For Mary, her passionate pursuit came in the form of her love for animals. Giraffes, lions, ducks, squirrels, elephants, snakes, chimpanzees, gorillas…she loved them all. As a matter of principle, one must understand, it was because of her love of animals that she abhorred poachers and hunters. They were nothing more than butchers looking to make a profit, their only goal seeming to be to eradicate the most beautiful animals the human race has ever seen.

There was only one thing that she hated as much as hunters and poachers and it wasn't without a fair amount of hypocrisy on her part; zoos. She absolutely could not stand zoos. In some cases, she had to admit, zoos were quite helpful in keeping certain animals away from their would-be killers but overall, zoos only served to afford humans the opportunity to gawk and giggle at the poor animals contained within the cages. Perhaps it wasn't really the zoos' fault how their guests behaved, but it incensed Mary when humans acted like animals were somehow inferior to them.

She simply couldn't figure out why people seemed so intent on looking down on wild animals. Was it perhaps because they couldn't speak the Queen's English? Or was it because they didn't wear clothes?

Whatever the reason, it was utterly ridiculous.

In her spare time, should she ever find herself in possession of any, she dedicated herself to animal rights pursuits wherever she could find them. Her career choice didn't leave much time for her love of the non-human population, as there always seemed to be one family or another in need of her assistance, so she seized any opportunity to educate people on the necessity of protecting the animals they so liked to hunt.

In her many years, she had come to realize that people of older generations didn't enjoy having some stranger tell them they shouldn't hunt, so she instead turned her efforts to the children she cared for.

More often than not, the parents were so neglectful of their children, Mary could have told the little ones that wood came from birds or some other nonsense like that and the parents wouldn't have been any wiser. That suited her just fine; because the parents didn't pay attention to their children, the poor things were desperately searching for an adult to listen to their dreams and fears and take them seriously.

This was probably why Jane and Michael Banks latched onto her and Bert with such ferocity.

It wasn't long into her time with Jane and Michael that the opportunity to educate them on the importance of treating animals right arose.

"I just think it's so funny to see the chimpanzees get angry in the zoos when people taunt them!" Michael said to Bert. The older man glanced at Mary before looking back at Michael and chuckling nervously.

"Well, you know, you shouldn't taunt the poor things, Michael," he told the boy. Mary's eyes were slowly becoming narrower and narrower as she stared at the young man in her care.

"Why ever not?" Jane chimed in. Her tone was the very picture of snootiness. "It's not as if they care. They're wild beasts; they aren't like humans, Bert. Why should we treat them as if they _were_ human?"

Mary took a deep breath, calming herself. She put her right hand on Jane's shoulder and her left on Michael's and turned them around slowly. She bent down to look them both in the eye and smiled sweetly.

"Why, because it could easily be you in those cages, Jane."

Jane's blue eyes went wide and she glanced at her brother nervously.

"Oh yes," Mary continued. "There is a place in Timbuktu, after all, called the Chimpanzoo."

"The…the Chimpanzoo?" Michael stuttered, looking worried.

"Quite. Bert, you know all about the Chimpanzoo, don't you? Help me explain it to the children," Mary replied, beckoning her old friend over. She saw Bert smirk and give her a significant look before throwing in his contribution.

"To be sure, Mary, to be sure. The Chimpanzoo, children, is an odd place. To you and me, it's all backwards."

"B-Backwards?" Jane asked, looking up at Bert, who nodded.

"In the Chimpanzoo, the humans are kept under lock and key, so to speak, instead of the animals. And it's run by a chimp!"

"This is absolutely ridiculous!" Jane exclaimed, stomping her foot. "There is no such thing as the Chimpanzoo!"

"That, my dear Jane, is where you're wrong," Mary said kindly. "In fact…instead of telling you about it, I should show you."

Michael's eyes shined with excitement; the little boy was up for anything involving Mary's magic, it seemed. It was sort of an unspoken agreement that Mary was indeed magical. How else could she have transported them into a chalk drawing world?

Jane, on the other hand, locked eyes with Mary and stared her down. "I think you're bluffing."

"Are you sure, Jane? Are you sure I'm bluffing?" Mary asked. Jane's glare faltered for only a moment before she regained her confidence.

"Y-Yes."

"Well, then. I'll just have to show you I'm telling the truth, won't I?"

"Yes, you will."

"So be it," Mary said with a smirk. She looked up at Bert. "Would you like to come with us, Bert?"

"I think I'll sit this one out, Miss Poppins, if it's all the same to you."

"Very well." She looked back down at the children she still had a grip on. "Are you ready?"

The children nodded. Michael was a bit more enthusiastic than his sister but it was agreement all the same. Mary let her magic flow through her hands and surround Jane and Michael and with a pop, they were gone.

* * *

The next instant, Mary and the children arrived in the Chimpanzoo. But they looked a bit different.

"We're all…flat!" Michael exclaimed. "We look like characters out of a storybook!"

"Yes," Mary agreed, examining her appearance with a mirror she retrieved from her never-ending bag. Her brown hair was still immaculate under her flowered hat, as it always was, and it still felt the same when she raised her hand to it, but her appearance startled her. She had been to Chimpanzoo before, of course, but that was many years ago and Mary had quite forgotten what it was like to be, as Michael so aptly described it, like a character out of a storybook.

She looked down at her clothes; they hadn't changed either, thankfully. Under her blue overcoat, her shirt was still as white and crisp as freshly fallen snow and her small red bow tie was still brightly colored. Her navy blue skirt fell to her ankles, like usual, but her black, heeled shoes, which usually shined with every step she took, had fallen quite flat in their luster.

Of course, Mary pondered, given that this was a sort of parallel world where everything held the appearance of being straight out of a children's book, the slight changes to her clothing wasn't unusual.

She turned her attention to the children beside her; Jane and Michael were examining their own appearances curiously. It only took Mary a second or two to realize that they were all wearing the outfits they wore on the day Mary met the Banks children.

Jane, her blonde hair even lighter than usual, had on a delightful little peach colored dress with white lace trim near the bottom and a white lace collar. Just at the apex of her collar was a small maroon bow, which seemed to be made of velvet. Mary couldn't be sure, really, because of its new lack of texture. Whatever it was, there was a larger sash of it around Jane's waist.

Jane's bright blue eyes – made even more so with the storybook transformation – widened as she took in her appearance, from the tips of her fingers to the very bottom of her pearly white shoes.

"This is impossible…" Jane whispered.

"It's very possible, as you can see," Mary replied shortly. Michael chuckled and Mary glanced at him. His white shirt was, thankfully, clean, but his yellow tie was as crooked as always. Mary had quite given up trying to straighten it because it seemed hell bent on returning to its original state the second Mary turned away.

The rest of his clothing – his grey-blue shorts, yellow socks, and brown Oxfords – seemed to be in order. His blonde hair, only a shade or two darker than his sister's, had a few stray hairs, but that in itself wasn't unusual.

"Well, then, now that we're all sorted, shall we go and see the Chimpanzoo?" Mary asked them.

Jane swallowed apprehensively, but Michael nodded in excitement. Mary tried to keep her smile to herself; the little boy in her care so reminded her of Bert sometimes. He was fearless, willing to try anything. She hoped he never lost that adventurous spirit; she'd seen too many children grow up to be miserable adults, wondering where the carefree soul they'd had ran off to.

As they emerged from the dark corner they arrived in, Mary took both children by the hand. Humans were allowed to roam around freely in this world, but if they got too rowdy or rambunctious, the animals would lock them right up.

Michael's eyes grew wide when they passed by a large cage, containing a finely dressed woman swinging from a perch, like a bird might. She looked rather sad, but it didn't faze Mary. She was cooped up in a cage, being laughed at by animals of all sizes. Why shouldn't she be sad?

There were cages all around the zoo; it was set up much like the London Zoo, actually, with a few structural differences here and there. It appeared that the humans were rather well cared for, but they still longed for freedom.

Mary nodded her head along to the music floating through the air. She looked over to the middle of the zoo; there was a gazebo housing a small primate orchestra. They were all dressed in green and yellow band uniforms and they played rather nicely.

Jane jumped when one of the monkeys screeched and ran past her in a hurry. It was a young monkey, dressed in clothing not dissimilar to Jane's own apparel. Two older monkeys followed the younger one; Mary could only suppose they were her parents. They looked weary, Mary noted, as they trailed after their offspring.

A family of beautiful ducks dressed in fine clothing quacked and the mother duck quickly herded her ducklings out of the way of the charging baby monkey. Mary smiled to herself when she saw the mother monkey send an apologetic look towards the mother duck, which nodded in acceptance.

She had forgotten how civilized the animals could be in the world of Chimpanzoo. It seemed they were more civilized than humans were at times.

The small monkey jumped up and down and screeched again, pointing at the cage in front her.

"Oh my!" Jane exclaimed, raising a small hand to cover her mouth. She was looking at the cage the baby monkey was pointing to. It contained a family of humans; a mother, a father, and two children, a boy and a girl.

Mary considered them for a moment and decided to bring Jane and Michael closer to the cage. If nothing else, this would serve as a sobering wake up call for the children. They were lucky to have been born as humans. They could easily have been born lions or tigers and have been locked up in a zoo, like the ones back home. Or they could have been born into this world instead and locked up for being too loud or too hyper.

The look in Jane's eyes grew sadder and sadder as they drew nearer to the caged family. The daughter in the cage couldn't have been much older than Jane; Mary guessed perhaps a year, two at the most.

Michael fidgeted when his eyes met the caged boy's. "Why are they locked up?" he asked Mary.

"Well, let's see…" Mary leaned over to inspect the plaque set into the sign in front of the cage. "It seems the children got into a scrap with a young monkey over something and the parents tried to intervene, so the whole family got locked up."

"Oh, dear," Jane said sadly. She looked up at the family. "Are you alright in there?"

"We're fine," the little girl answered. "It's not so bad, really. We just have to shout or dance occasionally to entertain the guests or we get hit. If we don't behave, we get hit."

"You get…hit?" Jane questioned. The little girl nodded.

"Yes. It doesn't happen often, though, so it's not so bad. We just have to do as they say. It's easy, really. Robert and I have it figured out. Mother just stays quiet most of the time. Father gets hit the most often, though. He hasn't quite come to grips with the fact that we're not getting out of here."

"Ever?" Jane asked. "You're in here for life?"

"Probably. Unless the zoo gets shut down. But I doubt that'll happen. Sometimes they'll capture orphans from the street or something and raise them in here, and then release them into the wild so they can study them, but that's really the only way out, other than death, of course."

"That's horrible."

"Yes, it is. You just have to accept it and get on with your life though," the little girl said. Her dark eyes shifted up nervously. "You'd better move on to the next cage. The guards get irritated if we speak too long. It was nice to meet you. What's your name?"

"Jane. Jane Banks."

"Nice to meet you, Jane Banks. I'm Elizabeth Parker."

"Nice to meet you, too. Good luck, Elizabeth."

"Thank you."

"Come on, then," Mary urged. She pulled Jane and Michael by the hand over to a large play area that was sectioned off by metal rungs. They could see a group of teenaged humans running around inside.

"I don't like here, Miss Poppins," Jane said. Her eyes started to tear up. "The poor little girl and her family get hit! It's not right!"

"No, it isn't right."

"It's very weird," Michael commented, glancing at a kangaroo joey that was looking at him curiously. "All the animals keep looking at me like I've got a few extra heads. I don't like it."

"Well, maybe they've never seen a human out of captivity before," Mary told him. Michael frowned, like the idea of a human in captivity bothered him.

"Can we go home now, Miss Poppins?" Jane asked. "This place scares me…"

"Of course we can go. But do you see what I meant about respecting animals, Jane? Michael?"

"Yes. I see now. It could easily have been the other way. We could be the ones locked up," Jane said.

"And they could be laughing at us like they do here," Michael said sadly.

As if on cue, Elizabeth's father shouted angrily at an ape that taunted him and the ape promptly burst into peals of raucous laughter.

"Will you respect animals from now on? And not laugh at them for getting angry?" Mary asked Jane. The children nodded and Mary said, "Very well. I'm glad I've taught you something about respecting those less fortunate than you. That goes for humans as well. Just because someone or something isn't as lucky or as well to do as you, doesn't mean they aren't worthy of your respect. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Miss Poppins," Jane and Michael said in unison.

"Good," she replied sternly. She softened her expression and smiled at the children and took their hands. "Let's go home, then shall we?"

With one last glance around Chimpanzoo, Mary smiled to herself as she and the children winked out of existence and returned to their universe. She, for one, couldn't wait to be fully dimensional again. Being flat was very taxing on one's energy, if she was quite honest.

However, being flat was a small price to pay for having taught Jane and Michael an important lesson about treating others fairly and how they'd like to be treated should the situations be reversed.

Making the next generation better than the one that came before was something for which Mary would gladly pay any price.


End file.
